What was the historic reasoning/evolution of the random borders in the specific examples?

by oddabel

Happy Sunday /r/AskHistorians

I have an interesting one. I was wasting time on Google Maps, and I was curious how some of these random borders evolved, and why they are what they are. Generally, a lot of borders are via land feature (mountain/river/lake/etc...), as well as surveys (Mason-Dixon) but there are quite a few that just seem... random. Are there any significance or historical reasons to these seemingly randomly created examples?

Imgur:

Michigan's Upper Peninsula/Michigan

PA/WV/DE: https://i.imgur.com/eh91N4Z.png

MA/CT: https://imgur.com/khhT6Uf.png

Northern Minnesota: https://imgur.com/gXP3qNW.png

OK, NV, NE, UT, (well most western arbitrary borders): https://imgur.com/gSJtIAU.png

TN/KY: https://imgur.com/EODYvur.png

And of course this cute little nubbin of TN/MO/KY: https://imgur.com/Rsr5gCK.png

CaptainRhino

For the northern border of Minnesota see this answer by u/AshkenazeeYankee

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/533aoh/why_does_the_us_border_extend_across_this_lake_in/